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South Korea has announced its list of top 100 Korean tourism spots and attractions to boost local and international tourism for 2025-26!
Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) is back with the annual list of the 2025-26 Top 100 Korean Tourism Attractions. It includes the popular destinations such as the five royal palaces of Seoul, Insta-famous Purple Island in Jeollanam-do Province and more.
Together with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, this is the seventh edition of the biennial project launched in 2012. The project aims to promote top 100 travel destinations in Korea for domestic and international tourists each year.
The places for 2025-26 were selected based on big data analysis of social media search volumes. There were written and on-site interviews with tourism experts in multiple rounds to complement the analysis.
There are 61 cultural tourism assets, such as historic sites, monuments and recreational facilities in the list. The remaining 39 are nature-based tourism spots, including forests, seas and wetlands.
The Greater Seoul area has the most number of sites, with 22 sites making it to the 2025-26 Top 100 Korean Tourism Attractions list. There are 15 sites in Gangwon Province, another 15 in the Chungcheong provinces, 18 in the Jeolla provinces, 28 in the Gyeongsan provinces, and six in Jeju Island.
New Hot Spots on the List
In the 2025-26 Top 100 Korean Tourism Attractions, there are new interactive spots which are more popular among locals. There are 27 such new hotspots on the list that are certainly must-explore, especially if you like experiential travel.
There are things like ‘eating like local’ of food such as instant noodles (ramyeon) at a park near the Hangang River, shopping at Sokcho Central Market in Sokcho, Gangwon-do, or visiting a pop up store in trendy Seongsu-dong neighborhood. This eastern Seoul region is home to countless pop-up stores, making it popular among tourists and locals. If you are a fan of K-dramas, you can opt to explore Gyodongdo Island off the coast of Incheon. This is one of the filming locations of some parts of ‘Squid Game.’
The Popular Destinations
There are 14 destinations on the list which have been a constant in the list for the last seven versions. These include the five major royal palaces of the 1392-1910 Joseon Dynasty in Seoul — Gyeongbok Palace, Changdeok Palace, Changgyeong Palace, Deoksu Palace, and Gyeonghui Palace.
Other signature destinations include Jeonju Hanok Village in North Jeolla Province, Hallasan National Park and the Jeju Olle Trail on Jeju Island, Suncheonman Bay National Garden and wetlands in South Jeolla Province, Bulguk Temple and Seokguram Grotto in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, and Suwon Hwaseong Fortress in Gyeonggi Province.
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